I am a firm believer that the US, instead of mothballing its old Los Angeles class submarines when they are retired, should convert one of them to a non-military “Sea-View” research vessel.
Its primary mission would be to take oceanographic floor cores faster than a surface vessel could, to create a mineralogical map of the ocean floor for potential mining operations. The potential value of this to the US is in the tens of Trillions of dollars. This is because most of the minerals on dry land are limited to low grade ores, the highest grades gone in many places since the 17th Century.
If we can just map where the high grade minerals are, the mining companies will invest the money to figure out how to mine them.
Secondarily, the converted submarine can be used to both recover extremely dangerous waste dropped at sea, and to entomb with underwater concrete that which cannot be recovered. Ironically, it can even recover very radioactive materials, because the submarine carries a great quantity of lead bars for ballast. Lead that could shield the crew from radiation.
Third, such a boat would result in a profound leap in the study of oceanography, with top scientists being able to travel in comfort far deeper and in greater numbers than ever before.
A far better fate than slowly rusting in a dock.
Sounds interesting.
Have you put forward your ideas to the Navy?
Good idea.
Nope. International treaties forbid staking a claim beyond 200 miles from your own coast. People will not invest in what they cannot own.